50+ Organizations Urge Biden to Establish Civilian Climate Corps through Executive Action

Today, Sunrise Movement along with 50+ national organizations – including key service, youth and environmental organizations – shared a letter calling on President Biden to establish a Civilian Climate Corps that would put young Americans to work serving their communities and fighting the climate crisis. The full text of the letter and its signatories are below.

“This summer, our country saw heatwaves, wildfires and floods that destroyed communities, uprooted families and claimed hundreds of lives,” the signed organizations wrote. “While previous Executive Orders and legislation under your administration demonstrate tremendous progress toward meeting our Paris climate goals and your campaign promises, this summer has made clear that we must be as ambitious as possible in tackling the great crisis of our time. We encourage your administration to create a Civilian Climate Corps through existing authorities, with existing climate funding, that can coordinate across relevant federal agencies.”

The letter highlighted the significance of what this could mean for young voters, in particular, a vital voting bloc for Democrats.

“Young voters widely support this vision. Half of all voters under 45 say they would consider joining the Climate Corps if a job was available to them,” the organizations note. “In 2020, young people helped ensure your election to office. After high profile approvals of fossil fuel projects, it’s time to deliver for this critical constituency and show that you and your administration are serious about an all out mobilization to confront the climate crisis. We urge you to support this historic investment in jobs and justice.”

This comes during Climate Week and after the March to End Fossil Fuels, which saw 75k participants – including tens of thousands of students – take to the streets calling for bold climate action from the Biden administration. Many of the same organizations leading the protest have signed the letter.

The letter also highlighted four key principles for a Civilian Climate Corps initiative created through Executive Action:

• The Civilian Climate Corps must take a whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis.
• The Civilian Climate Corps must prioritize equity in the communities it serves and the Corps members it trains.
• The Civilian Climate Corps must provide a pathway to long-term employment through good-paying union jobs.
• The Civilian Climate Corps must center the needs and leadership of local communities in order to achieve its national mission.

Sunrise Movement will be doubling down on its efforts to push for a Civilian Climate Corps through executive action. They've already spoken to their 100+ hubs and chapters about restarting a national campaign and increasing pressure on the administration to get this done.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

September 18, 2023

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Biden,

We, the undersigned organizations, write to express our support for an Executive Order establishing a Civilian Climate Corps that would put young Americans to work serving their communities and tackling the climate crisis.

This summer, our country saw heatwaves, wildfires and floods that destroyed communities, uprooted families and claimed hundreds of lives. While previous Executive Orders and legislation under your administration demonstrate tremendous progress toward meeting our Paris climate goals and your campaign promises, this summer has made clear that we must be as ambitious as possible in tackling the great crisis of our time. We encourage your administration to create a Civilian Climate Corps through existing authorities, with existing climate funding, that can coordinate across relevant federal agencies.

Tapping into enthusiasm for the sweeping social programs of the New Deal era, the possibility of a modern Civilian Climate Corps remains a popular and exciting strategy in our country’s plan to combat climate change. Americans want the opportunity to serve their communities, address the most pressing threat facing our country, and get experience that can lead to long-term, good-paying union employment. The Civilian Climate Corps would let them do so, through national service work that ranges from improving energy efficiency to supporting disaster resilience and recovery. With high workforce development standards and strong environmental justice requirements, an ambitious Climate Corps would train a generation of climate leaders, kickstart the climate workforce mobilization, and directly combat systemic racial injustice by prioritizing resources and job creation in underserved communities.

Young voters widely support this vision. Half of all voters under 45 say they would consider joining the Climate Corps if a job was available to them. Like the COVID recovery package’s $1,400 checks, putting young people into high-quality national service positions to tackle climate change and on pathways to good-paying, union jobs would make precisely the kind of visible policy change in Americans’ lives that can demonstrate the power of government to serve its people.

Strong workforce standards will be essential in realizing the full potential of the Civilian Climate Corps. It is critical that the Civilian Climate Corps set corps members up for success during and after their year of service, and that this holds true across all national service programs. A fully established and appropriated Civilian Climate Corps should provide a life-sustaining wage for all corps members, plus healthcare, childcare, and educational benefits that would help corps members and their families thrive. Corps members should also receive technical and vocational training during their service, including through pre-apprenticeships in partnership with local union chapters, to open pathways to stable careers in the clean economy.

The Civilian Climate Corps must also advance environmental justice and correct the racially exclusionary practices of the original Civilian Conservation Corps. It must be a viable opportunity for all young Americans, and it must address the disproportionate burden on communities of color across the country from the overlapping harms of toxic pollution, economic disinvestment, and other structural inequities. The Civilian Climate Corps can be a force to directly combat those inequities and support these communities. To that end, any new Civilian Climate Corps program should strive to direct half of corps investments into overburdened communities, and recruit at least half of its corps members from those same places, using the authority under the Justice 40 initiative and additional efforts. The program should also ensure gender equality, provide opportunities for corps members of a range of ages and abilities, give corps members opportunities regardless of immigration status, protect tribal sovereignty and prioritize the needs and leadership of the communities it serves. By prioritizing local recruitment and engaging in local consultation on project design and implementation the CCC can ensure that its climate action is sustainably driven from the bottom-up.

We know that when you hear the words climate change, you think jobs. Establishing a Civilian Climate Corps is a key opportunity to invest in the workforce of tomorrow and clearly demonstrate that climate action and job creation are inextricably and positively linked. Going big on the Civilian Climate Corps and ensuring that it centers job creation, environmental justice, and direct community investment will be an essential step in our collective fight to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

In 2020, young people helped ensure your election to office. After high profile approvals of fossil fuel projects, it’s time to deliver for this critical constituency and show that you and your administration are serious about an all out mobilization to confront the climate crisis. We urge you to support this historic investment in jobs and justice.

Sincerely,

Americas Service Commissions
Blue America
Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund
Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Chiron Communications
CivicWell
Conservation Trust for North Carolina
Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
Debt Collective
Evergreen Action
Farallon Strategies
Food & Water Watch
Gen Z for Change
GreenFaith
GreenLatinos
GRID Alternatives
Healthy Communities of the Capital Area
Hip Hop Caucus
IfNotNow
Justice Democrats
Labor Network for Sustainability
League of Conservation Voters
Maine Conservation Voters
Main Farm & Sea to School Network
Maine Farm to Institution
March for Our Lives
Marked by Covid
Milwaukee Riverkeeper
National Wildlife Federation
Next100
NextGen America
OIC of America, Inc.
Oil Change International
Our Hawaii
Partnership for the CCC
Path to Progress
People’s Action
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
ReImagine Appalachia
RuralOrganizing
Service Employees International Union
Serve Washington
Service Year Alliance
Sierra Club
States for Service Coalition
Sunrise Movement
The Climate Initiative
The Climate Reality Project
The Corps Network
US High Speed Rail Association
WildEarth Guardians
Working Families Party